Critics of Deal With Giants Want to Read the Fine Print

By LAURA MANSNERUS

Published: April 22, 2005

While New Jersey officials are poised to approve a new stadium for the New York Giants, the deal that was struck last week with the team has some lawmakers asking whether the state is giving up too much.

The board of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority is expected to vote in favor of the agreement today, since Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey has lined up support for what he calls ''a big win for taxpayers.''

The Giants are to build and finance a $750 million replacement for the 29-year-old state-owned stadium in the Meadowlands Sports Complex, pay $6.3 million in rent and taxes and take over maintenance costs of more than $3 million a year.

The state's obligations and potential losses are less clear, however. No one has determined exactly how much of the debt on the existing stadium must be paid off or whether the sports authority could have received more money for the 40 acres of prime property it is providing to the Giants for retail development.

The deal has critics within the administration and the sports authority, but few are willing to be identified. The public complaints are coming from legislators who raise doubt about the deal's benefits.

''I am afraid this ultimately will end up costing the taxpayers,'' Assemblyman Kevin O'Toole, a Republican on the budget committee, said in a statement on Wednesday.

Lawmakers also say they have been given no information about the agreement, which Mr. Codey, a Democrat, signed on April 14.

''This may be the best deal in the world,'' said Assemblyman Joseph R. Malone III, the ranking Republican on the budget committee, who with fellow Republican committee members called for a public hearing on the agreement. ''I just want it to see the light of day.''

Independent sports economists say that they believe the plan is a far better deal for the taxpayers than most N.F.L. stadiums are.

Even if the deal ends up costing the state $10 million to $20 million a year, as some detractors say, said Mark S. Rosentraub, an economist at Cleveland State University, that price would be negligible when spread over millions of households.

There are questions, though, about what the state is giving up over the 40-year term of the lease. It will take on $124 million in debt.

The chairman of the sports authority, Carl J. Goldberg, said the agency's lawyers believed that $72 million of that amount would have to be retired immediately when the existing stadium is demolished. He added that the authority already has the cash to pay that off. Whether the authority pays off more than that, refinances the remaining debt or both has not been determined.

The state now relies on revenue from the stadium to pay its debt service of $5 million to $6 million a year. Another source would have to be found if any debt is refinanced. It is not clear, either, how the state will finance the $30 million in infrastructure improvements that it plans to spend.

At the same time, the state will lose about $18 million a year that it receives from Giants, Jets and MetroStars games, concerts and other events -- although it already stands to lose income if the Jets and MetroStars soccer team, which also uses the stadium, leave as planned.

The state's consultants say the project will produce $15.3 million in added tax revenue in its first year of operation, 2009, and $1.1 billion more than the existing stadium would yield over a 30-year period.

Mr. Codey and Mr. Goldberg say the alternative to a new stadium -- improving the old one under a lease provision the Giants have sought to enforce in court -- is a huge risk that could cost the state $300 million.

Still, Republicans are critical, and even some Democrats are wary of the agreement. Mr. Goldberg says he has reached out to legislators to talk about the deal. But some complain that the terms are still mysterious.

Assemblyman Paul DiGaetano of Bergen County, a Republican running for governor, said Wednesday that the Giants were getting ''prime real estate'' at almost no cost.

''The governor and the leadership of the sports authority are acting quickly before the people realize what's going on,'' he said.